Tag Archives: Jim Yong Kim

“No matter how good you think you are as a leader, my goodness, the people around you will have all kinds of ideas for how you can get better. So for me, the most fundamental thing about leadership is to have the humility to continue to get feedback and to try to get better – because your job is to try to help everybody else get better.”

Jim Yong Kim

Discounting and ignoring feedback from others because you don’t agree with it or don’t see it the same way they do is incredibly flawed. ‘In the mind of the perceiver the perception is a fact.’

Feedback is a gift. Because somewhere in there is a kernel of truth you might not want to recognize or address. There is a root cause for a perception and if you want to grow, if you want to serve others, you MUST look inside yourself and at YOUR behaviors to figure out how to improve. You have to learn and grow and have humility to understand that you don’t know everything.

Keep seeking feedback! And if you don’t get it from one person, ask someone else. When you receive it don’t defend yourself, seek first to understand and then get to work with humility and grace and find a way to change so you can improve in your ability to serve others.

Like this:

“No matter how good you think you are as a leader, my goodness, the people around you will have all kinds of ideas for how you can get better. So for me, the most fundamental thing about leadership is to have the humility to continue to get feedback and to try to get better – because your job is to try to help everybody else get better.”

Jim Yong Kim

Someone once told me that as soon as soon as you profess “I am humble” you have ceased to be so in any way. Humility is hard. We all want to be good. Heck with that, we want to be great! But what does it mean to be great? Is it all about doing it for me? For I? For the ego? The self? The pursuit of selfish endeavors or selfish gains? That is the opposite of humility! For me humility is the recognition that I still yet have a lot to learn. That I will always have more to learn and that everyone can teach me something.

My Dad (who by the way is one of the greatest influences in my life from both a leadership and human character perspective) taught me when I was very young that the value of a person wasn’t measured in the car that they drove or the clothes that they wore. Instead, the value of another man was measured entirely in how they treated other people. Interesting right?! The value of a human being measured not in what they have, but in what they give. Respect. Honor. Dignity. Compassion. Service. These are just some of the gifts that the greats give, regardless of the size of their bank account or their station in life.

So, for today’s quote this is one lesson that I hope I never forget. Ask for feedback. LISTEN to the response. Get better. Period. The day you think you have arrived your journey has ended. Leadership is learning and growing. I am a better leader today than I was one year ago and I hope that what I am today is a pale shadow compared to what I have become a year from now based on really listening, learning, and growing.